Easy Creamy Marinara Sauce with Barilla® Marinara and Organic Pasta

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I’m so glad you’re here to learn how to make easy creamy marinara sauce made with Barilla® Organic Pasta and Barilla® Marinara! You’re going to love it, and I can almost guarantee you’ll have dinner on the table in well under thirty minutes!

I am so pleased to be partnering with Barilla® for today’s post. I am excited to announce that BJ’s Warehouse stores, where The Beloved and I shop weekly, are now carrying an exclusive line of Barilla® Organic Pasta. Exclusive as in you cannot get Barilla® Organic Pasta anywhere else but at BJ’s! Currently, I’m finding a 6 pound box of Barilla® Organic–3 1-pound boxes each of two of my favorite shapes, spaghetti and penne–for $9.99. And for 6 pounds of organic pasta, that price is hard to beat. Barilla® Organic pasta is made from Organically Certified wheat, so of course it’s also GMO-free, it cooks up firm and al dente, holds sauces beautifully and tastes as delicious as fine pasta should taste.

BJ’s is now also carrying Barilla® Natural Pasta Sauce for the first time. Having never tried it before, as soon as I brought the four-pack of sauce home, I whipped off the lid and gave it a taste. It is pretty darned good and very fresh-tasting, plus it’s all natural and naturally gluten-free. And for folks who are oregano lovers, you’ll really like this since oregano figures prominently in the flavor profile.

Here’s a fun thing happening on Saturday, March 5 at your local BJ’s Warehouse Stores: there will be cooking demos featuring Barilla® Organic Pasta and Natural Marinara Sauce at all the BJ’s, so go to the one nearest you so you can try it before you buy it! Nice!

For more information about Barilla® products, do visit their website. And be sure to meet the Barilla® Share the Table Advocates while you’re at it. They’re a wonderful, creative, diverse group of bloggers, restaurateurs, and authors who are bringing their families together at the table to have meaningful meals. I know you’ll be inspired.

You can also follow the campaign on twitter, @BarillaUS as well as the hashtags, #BarillaOrganic and #BarillaMarinara to see what other bloggers have made. See? More Barilla® inspiration!

And now, on to the easy creamy marinara sauce recipe. I promise you’ll love it.

Easy Creamy Marinara Sauce with Barilla®

Most creamy marinara sauce is made with heavy cream. I don’t know about you, but I don’t always have heavy cream on hand. But what I do almost always have on hand is cream cheese, and that’s the secret ingredient in my easy creamy marinara sauce, although I guess it isn’t a secret anymore!

For you visual folks, here’s a quick “How to Make Easy Creamy Marinara Sauce” video for you. After the video, please read on for the recipe.

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Easy Creamy Marinara Sauce with Barilla®

Prep Time

5mins

Cook Time

15mins

Total Time

20mins

This easy creamy marinara sauce is a snap to put together, and your dinner will be on the table in about 20 minutes, I promise. Enjoy!

Course:
Pasta

Cuisine:
Italian

Author: onlinepastrychef

What You'll Need

For the Easy Creamy Marinara Sauce

2Tablespoonsextra virgin olive oil

1/4-1/2teaspoonred pepper flake, to taste

1 24ozjar Barilla® Natural Marinara Sauce

1/4cupwater, vegetable stock or chicken stock

1/2block(4 oz) cream cheese

2ozfinely grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1Tablespoonbalsamic vinegar(if needed)

To Finish and Serve

1poundBarilla® Organic Penne

What To Do

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil until it shimmers.

Add the pepper flake and swirl for a few seconds to flavor the oil.

Pour in the jar of Barilla® Marinara sauce and stir well. Bring to a simmer and add the water or stock.

Simmer and stir for about 5 minutes just to reduce the sauce a bit.

Stir in the cream cheese until melted, and then stir in the grated Pecorino Romano.

Taste, and if needed, add the balsamic for a bit of brightness. I quite liked it in mine.

To Finish and Serve

Cook the Barilla® Organice Penne according to package directions. Boil only 7 minutes rather than 9, then drain it, reserving 1 cup of the starchy pasta water.

Add the pasta and water to the creamy marinara sauce and stir well over high heat until the pasta is done and the sauce beautifully coats every piece of penne.

Serve with extra grated cheese and freshly ground black pepper.

Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

If you make your sauce while your pasta water is coming to a boil and while your pasta is cooking, I promise you dinner can be on the table in about 20 minutes!

Hi, and welcome! I'm Jenni, the pastry chef of Pastry Chef Online, and I want to help you be fearless in the kitchen!

For years, I was a fearful cook and baker--like sweaty-neck fearful.

After years of reading cookbooks, watching cooking and baking shows, and experimenting in the kitchen, I left a 16-year special education career to attend culinary school. I landed in a wonderful fine dining restaurant in Winter Park, Florida, where everyone was fearless, playing with their food on a daily basis. It was always, "I wonder what would happen if we..." and then we'd try it and find out. By the time chef handed me a 6th pan of horseradish broth and asked me to turn it into a sorbet for an appetizer, I knew my fearful days were totally behind me!

I started this site to teach people the basic pastry methods and techniques necessary to build a solid foundation in the pastry kitchen, especially if that kitchen happens to be in your own house. Over the years, I have added hundreds of recipes to complement my technique posts. Please use this site as the resource I have built it to be, and feel free to contact me anytime. I'm happy to help you on your journey to being fearless in the kitchen!

If you're new to Pastry Chef Online, this page is a great place to start to get the lay of the land!

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About Me!

Hi, and welcome! I'm Jenni, the pastry chef of Pastry Chef Online, and I want to help you be fearless in the kitchen!

For years, I was a fearful cook and baker--like sweaty-neck fearful.

After years of reading cookbooks, watching cooking and baking shows, and experimenting in the kitchen, I left a 16-year special education career to attend culinary school. I landed in a wonderful fine dining restaurant in Winter Park, Florida, where everyone was fearless, playing with their food on a daily basis. It was always, "I wonder what would happen if we..." and then we'd try it and find out. By the time chef handed me a 6th pan of horseradish broth and asked me to turn it into a sorbet for an appetizer, I knew my fearful days were totally behind me!

I started this site to teach people the basic pastry methods and techniques necessary to build a solid foundation in the pastry kitchen, especially if that kitchen happens to be in your own house. Over the years, I have added hundreds of recipes to complement my technique posts. Please use this site as the resource I have built it to be, and feel free to contact me anytime. I'm happy to help you on your journey to being fearless in the kitchen!

If you're new to Pastry Chef Online, this page is a great place to start to get the lay of the land!